The Trump administration is shifting its tone on how it handles immigrants brought to the U.S. as children under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Also known as DACA, the program was created in 2012 to protect children who arrived in the country illegally prior to 2007 from deportation.
In recent months, the administration has tried to strip 525,000 DACA recipients, also known as Dreamers, of benefits, although no regulatory changes have been made to end the program.
For example, the Health and Human Services Department said it would make DACA recipients ineligible for the federal healthcare marketplace in June. Then last week, the Education Department said it was looking into five universities that offer financial help for DACA recipients. Also, immigration enforcement officers have arrested and detained DACA recipients throughout the country, which immigrant advocates said weakens protections of this group.
You try to do everything right, but in this administration, that just means there’s a record of you they can use to make you suffer.
People warned the Obama administration the records they forced people to submit to participate in DACA made them vulnerable to law enforcement abuse when they were coming up with the program